On Media

Danielle Rhoades Ha, vice president of communications for The New York Times, said "Fox & Friends" did not attempt to "confirm relevant facts, nor did they reach out to The New York Times for comment."

New York Times requests apology from Fox on ISIS story

The New York Times on Sunday took the unusual step of requesting an apology from a competitor, asking "Fox & Friends" to retract a report that the Times was to blame for the 2015 escape of an ISIS leader. Fox subsequently updated the story on its website with the NYT letter.

"I am writing on behalf of The New York Times to request an on-air apology and tweet from Fox & Friends in regards to a malicious and inaccurate segment 'NY Times leak allowed ISIS leader to slip away,'” wrote Danielle Rhoades Ha, vice president of communications for the Times.

The "Fox & Friends" report, which aired Saturday, apparently spurred a tweet by President Donald Trump: “The Failing New York Times foiled U.S. attempt to kill the single most wanted terrorist, al-Baghdadi,” the president wrote later Saturday. “Their sick agenda over National Security.” The "Fox & Friends" hosts had said the Times was "failing in its credibility. It’s failing our country."

In her request, Rhoades Ha added: "Neither the staff at Fox & Friends, nor the writers of a related story on Foxnews.com, appeared to make any attempt to confirm relevant facts, nor did they reach out to The New York Times for comment."

Later Sunday, Fox attached the New York Times letter to its original story and issued this statement: "The FoxNews.com story was already updated online and Fox & Friends will also provide an updated story to viewers tomorrow morning based on the FoxNews.com report. For all of their concern about accuracy, the New York Times didn't reach out to anyone at Fox News until Sunday afternoon for a story that ran Friday night."

By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.

A U.S. raid in May 2015 led to the death of Abu Sayyaf — a close associate of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — as well as the capture of his wife, Umm Sayyaf, and a trove of documents and laptops.

The raid in eastern Syria was disclosed the next day by Defense Secretary Ash Carter. “This is very useful, very important intelligence that we were able to collect,” a Defense official told POLITICO at the time.

Rhoades Ha pointed out that Fox News' Catherine Herridge reported on the raid on May 17, 2015.

Additional details were reported in a New York Times article in June 2015.

Fox's claim that the Times sabotaged U.S. efforts with its reporting originated with a statement from Gen. Tony Thomas, who told Fox that the published report caused a lead to the ISIS leader's whereabouts to go dry. "That was a very good lead. Unfortunately, it was leaked in a prominent national newspaper about a week later and that lead went dead,” said Thomas, who leads the U.S. Special Operations Command.

A Fox News spokesperson said "There is absolutely no comparison between Herridge's brief report on Fox News Sunday" and the Times "reported much more compromising details than Herridge did, in revealing revealing specific details about how Baghdadi communicated and who played a role delivering those communications. Also, [the Times] reported the terrorist's wife was cooperating and how an informant led to the target."

The Times claims the pertinent material was actually disclosed by Carter in his public statement and stated that the Pentagon did not object to its more detailed June article.

Speaking on background, a Fox News executive slammed Rhoades Ha for seeking the apology only on Sunday afternoon and for alerting reporters at the same time.

"NYT PR VP Danielle Rhoades Ha did not contact Fox News until Sunday afternoon — a day and a half AFTER the FoxNews.com story was published. She sent a letter to the reporter on the story — Catherine Herridge — at 3:30 pm on Sunday while being too cute by half and sending it to the press simultaneously — likely bcc’ing reporters," the executive said. (The Times directly emailed POLITICO a copy of the letter that was sent to the "Fox & Friends" weekend executive producer on Sunday at 3:33 p.m.) "Herridge interviewed General Thomas at the Aspen Security Forum on Friday and did a wrap-up story on the panel for FoxNews.com, which was published on Friday night. Seems like an awfully long time to wait to correct something if they were so concerned about accuracy. And Ha did not reach out to Fox & Friends until 2 p.m. on Sunday for a story that aired Saturday morning. ... Why did it take them so long to reach out?"

The executive added: "If we notified the press every time the N.Y. Times had to update an online story or correct something, your inbox would crash."

In response, Rhoades Ha said she initially emailed the "Fox & Friends" weekend executive producer at 12:53 on Sunday, asking for a response by 3 p.m. Rhoades Ha also said she "sent a separate request to Catherine Herridge and her co-author to update their story, which I would have done with or without the Fox & Friends segment. I did not ask Catherine for an apology. She responded and updated her story."

Rhoades Ha said she has yet to receive a response from the "Fox & Friends" weekend executive producer.

"We asked them for an apology because the entire premise of their segment is false," Rhoades Ha said. "I find it curious they are focusing on the timing of my emails instead of whether or not their reporting if false."

On Saturday, the Times sought clarification from the White House after Trump's tweet:

"We have asked the White House to clarify the tweet. If the President is referring to this 2015 story, the Pentagon raised no objections with the Times before publishing the story in 2015 and no senior American official ever complained publicly about it until now, as noted in Peter Baker's story this morning."

UPDATE July 24, 2017:“Fox & Friends” addressed the Times’ concerns in a segment Monday morning but did not apologize, saying, “The Times described its 2015 reporting to the Pentagon before publication and they had no objections, and no senior American officials have ever complained publicly – until now.” The show then directed viewers to read the full statement online.

In response, The Times said the updated segment "wasn't an apology, nor did it begin to address the larger issues with the Fox & Friends Weekend segment, one of which was sheer hypocrisy. The host railed against The New York Times for covering a raid stating that the U.S. government 'would have had al-Baghdadi based on the intelligence that we had except someone leaked' to The New York Times when Fox News had covered the same raid three weeks earlier in a segment in which their correspondent said, 'The newly recovered intelligence may bring U.S. closer to Baghdadi's kill or capture,'" a Times spokesperson said. "According to the curious logic of the Fox & Friends host, Fox News itself was unpatriotic."

In an updated statement on Monday afternoon, Fox said that "Neither Fox News’ report nor the subsequent on-air coverage was inaccurate." The network then links to a recent piece the Times wrote, explaining why it decided to name a CIA operative in one of its recent stories as something the Times is trying to distract people from by seeking an apology from Fox. "We find it beyond disappointing that the New York Times, in an attempt to distract from their recent debacle, decided to blame Fox News for comments made publicly by General Thomas during a widely viewed panel at the Aspen Security Forum. It might behoove the Times to actually check in with their reporter Eric Schmitt to see whether Gen. Thomas’ comments have merit and whether Schmitt’s reporting in 2015 revealed intelligence that allowed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to slip away.”